By Dr Josep Puig i Boix
Last December 3rd, I had the opportunity to defend some important amendments to a motion presented at the Parliament of Catalonia.
These are the amendments:
The Parliament of Catalonia urges the Government of the Generalitat to:
1. Develop clean solar, wind, geothermal, pumped storage or other renewables to increase installed capacity to at least 12,000 MW in 2030 to meet the target of 50% of all electricity coming from renewables in 2030.
1.1. Treat with priority all energy generation projects from renewable sources, with the following criteria:
1.1.A. Projects based on cooperative-community-citizen and self-generation projects with direct use of the energy produced.
Renewable Energy generation projects based on cooperative, community, citizen schemes must have a differentiated administrative treatment that facilitates their implementation, as stated in Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources: „the reduction of administrative requirements“, to make the energy communities a fully recognized reality in the said Directive, which even states: „… that renewable energy communities be remunerated through direct aid if they meet the requirements of small installations“.
1.1.B. Projects for commercial purposes
Renewable Energy generation projects for commercial purposes must enable citizen participation, especially of people living in the vicinity (municipality, county and nearby counties) of the project, as stated in Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources: „with the aim of to increase the local participation of the citizens in the renewable energy projects and, therefore, to increase the acceptance of the renewable energies“, as it demonstrates innumerable existing projects everywhere.
1.2. To promote consensus formulas between all the political forces within the framework of the Political Table of the PNTE (Pacte Nacional per a la Transició Energètica – National Agreement for the Energy Transition) to obtain the commitment of all of them with the aim of avoiding that the implantation of the renewable energies in the country would be object of electoral instrumentation and partisan use.